Kitty in a tree (yer doin’ it right)

This is Blackie. She’s the family cat at the moment. I‘m fairly certain that she revels in the fact that she’s the only cat we own at present. And she likes the dog, most of the time. She can hold her own with George without having to use her claws. I like that about her. She is not mean.

Good thing she’s not vindictive, either. Because this morning, her friend the dog chased her up a tree. It’s ever so much more fun to chase a cat up a tree than it is to chase squirrels.

Don’t be fooled at her lame attempt to appear helpless. I think she actually enjoys the view from up here.

There she is, hiding behind all the leaves. I remember being young and climbing trees. We had a perfect climbing tree in our yard when we lived in New Jersey. I can still remember my mother yelling, “Katy, you get down from that tree!”

I think she just didn’t understand the sense of freedom it gave me. Especially when you know exactly how to get down.

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Today was quiet here at the manor house. Rained this morning, a nice gentle one. I got sort of depressed watching Grey Gardens, the movie starring Drew Barrymore and Jessica Lange. I’d never heard of it before today. It’s the story that led up to the making of the 1975 documentary about Edith Bouvier Beale and her mother, Edith and how they came to live a gothic life in Grey Gardens, a dilapidated 28-room estate in East Hampton, NY. They were an aunt and cousin of Jacqueline Bouvier Kennedy Onassis and became famous when the documentary was released. The original film documentary was ranked No. 2 by the World Film Academy in its 100 Greatest Documentaries in the 20th Century.

The movie flashed back to beautiful days when the women were young and the estate was magnificent, boasting the most gorgeous gardens in East Hampton. In the end, 25 of the rooms went unused, and were decrepit with vines and trees growing inside. The home was filled with cats, raccoons and opossums and the filmmakers resorted to wearing flea collars around their ankles while making the original documentary. When Jacqueline Onassis came to visit, she offered them help, asking her Aunt Edith why she didn’t just go somewhere else. Edith said that Grey Gardens was the only place where she felt like herself. And I actually understood what she was talking about.

Interesting.

Well, until tomorrow my friends . . .